J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > Thames sketchbooks c.1804-14 > Wey, Guildford Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Diagrams and Studies of Boats: a Small Shallow-Draughted, Broad-Beamed Boat with Lateen Rig, Sailing, and Another, Sprit-Rigged, Beyond 1805

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Diagrams and Studies of Boats: a Small Shallow-Draughted, Broad-Beamed Boat with Lateen Rig, Sailing, and Another, Sprit-Rigged, Beyond’ 1805
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 8 Recto:
Diagrams and Studies of Boats: a Small Shallow-Draughted, Broad-Beamed Boat with Lateen Rig, Sailing, and Another, Sprit-Rigged, Beyond 1805
D06191
Turner Bequest XCVIII 8
Pencil, pen and ink and brown wash on white laid paper, 117 x 182 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘8’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘XCVIII 8’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
See catalogue note to folio 7 verso (D06190) for boat studies and diagrams in this sketchbook. Here, the boat sketched in diagrams in 7 is shown sailing, its helmsman seated on the weather gunwale. Turner has given the lateen-rigged sail reef points, which would enable its area to be reduced in dangerously strong winds. The same or a similar boat is seen to its left, as if approaching across its bows. Astern is what appears to be another boat, sailing away, with the sprit-sail rig (sails hung on horizontal and inclined yards) usual on Thames vessels. Hill notes that Turner is comparing the merits of different rigs and examining how they would perform when close-hauled or luffing; sailing into or facing the wind.

David Blayney Brown
July 2008

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Diagrams and Studies of Boats: a Small Shallow-Draughted, Broad-Beamed Boat with Lateen Rig, Sailing, and Another, Sprit-Rigged, Beyond 1805 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2008, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-diagrams-and-studies-of-boats-a-small-shallow-draughted-r1130375, accessed 27 December 2024.